Ohio State culminated its season with a fifth-place finish at the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Friday and Saturday, with the Buckeyes totaling 84.5 team points.
Penn State claimed the national championship with a record-setting 181.5 team points, surpassing its own previous record of 177 points set the year prior. Oklahoma State claimed second place with a 131-point finish, followed by Nebraska (100.5) and Iowa (92.5). The Nittany Lions claimed four of the 10 individual national championships, while the Cowboys claimed three of their own.
No. 2 Ben Davino and No. 1 Jesse Mendez came up just short of national championship aspirations with second-place finishes at 133 and 141 pounds, respectively, each claiming 4-1 records in the tournament. The pair were two of five Buckeyes to claim All-America honors.
Mendez, the reigning two-time national champion at 141, opened the championship round against Oklahoma State’s No. 2 Sergio Vega, but was unable to cap off his collegiate career with a victory. Following a 1-1 tie after three periods, Vega scored a takedown on Mendez with just 22 seconds remaining in sudden victory, holding out for a 4-1 victory by decision to claim the national title.
Vega became the first undefeated true freshman to win the national championship since 1947, ultimately ending Mendez’s perfect 22-0 season and hopes of becoming just the third Ohio State wrestler to claim three individual national titles.
Davino closed out the NCAA championships with the final match of the night, but also couldn’t capitalize in his title bout against Oklahoma State’s No. 1 Jax Forest.
Davino claimed the first point of the bout with an escape early in the second period and went into the match’s final period up 1-0. However, Forest opened the third period with an escape to tie the bout, following that up with a takedown of Davino to take a 4-1 lead. Forest was then allotted another point for over a minute of riding time against Davino to claim a 5-1 decision and the national championship.
Forest’s takedown of Davino in the third period marked the first time this season the redshirt freshman Buckeye has surrendered a takedown.
No. 8 Brandon Cannon at 157 pounds and No. 4 Carson Kharchla at 174 each earned fourth-place finishes in the tournament, while No. 16 Paddy Gallagher claimed eighth place in the 165-pound division.
Cannon defeated West Virginia’s No. 11 Ty Waters in the consolation semifinals before falling to Penn State’s No. 1 P.J. Duke by a 20-4 technical fall in the third-place match to end his tournament with a 5-2 record.
At 174, Kharchla earned a 5-2 decision over Missouri’s No. 7 Cam Steed to reach the third-place bout. Though the graduate wrestler dropped a 9-6 decision to Iowa’s No. 5 Patrick Kennedy, ending with a 5-2 record in the tournament and closing out his Ohio State career as a two-time All-American.
In the seventh-place match at 165, Gallagher fell via a 9-1 major decision to North Carolina’s No. 9 Bryce Hepner, who spent five years with the Buckeyes from 2020-25. Gallagher secured the first All-America honors of his five-year career with Ohio State.
Image courtesy of Ohio State Athletics
